Garden Friday

 

On this day, 

we pay homage to those fallen souls,

our brothers and sisters.

We will never forget.

God bless us, every one.

 

Well, it's Garden Friday once again my friends.

I've managed to keep busy and have made some progress

in kick starting the garden in the new location. 

It began with laying cardboard down to suppress grass and weeds.

Works like a charm, it's easy and it's FREE!

 

The raised beds we created last week were filled with branches, twigs,

leaves and leftover straw.

A few odds and ends were thrown in for good measure.

It sure comes in handy having this little rider and trailer to haul the goodies.

 

An afternoon trip to a couple of places helped me collect everything I needed for the next step.

The concrete corner blocks will help us build a few more beds

and the soil mix will get us planting!

At some point, I'd like to start creating my own soil mix,

but for now, the goal is to get fall crops in.

 

A cattle panel was cut in half and placed side-by-side in the first of two 3X8 beds.

The original plan was to stand the panel up across the far side of the bed,

but I couldn't get it to stand up on its own,

so I ended up bending the two halves and placing them across the entire bed.

I think I like this better.

With snap peas growing on the far side, I'm thinking they will be able to

have great support going through the top of the arch.

The other benefit is that I can place a netting over the entire trellis,

to discourage pests.

 

As a throwback from my square-foot gardening days,

this baling twine was added to help me section off where the seeds would be going.

I need visual cues like that, it just helps me do a better job.

Then I thought about how the twine being several inches off the soil like this

may discourage the chooks from digging in the bed.

We'll see how that goes.

 

Here are the tidbits going into this first bed.

We have carrots, leek, lettuces and snap peas.

 

The peas have been sown on the north side of the bed,

so that they don't shade out the other crops.

Because the space between the metal is fairly large,

it will be easy to reach in and harvest the carrots and leek.

The lettuces on the outermost edge will be fairly accessible.

I'm saving the extreme outer edge (toward the bottom of the picture) to sow allyssum.

I like having flowers mixed in with food crops.

All planted and ready to grow!

 

I use the plastic from water jugs to fashion tags,

so that I know what's planted where.

 

Having accomplished one bed,

I'm looking forward to staying on it 

until all of our beds are built and filled.

 

Along with sowing seeds,

it's been a busy time for nature watching.

We have many monarch caterpillars going about their business

and entertaining us all the while.

Here's one that decided to make itself to home

on one of the porch posts.

 

The next morning it was all tucked in 

and waiting for great things to happen.

 

Others have been found under the birdbath,

 

and scaling the siding on the house.

I guess they're not too fussy about where they call home.

 

Here's another critter that was found on the front porch.

My, but these insects are some friendly souls!

They just walk right up to the front porch and stay a while!

 

Some time was taken to tidy up all the bits and bobs laying around

that may be used in future garden projects.

Free pallets come in handy for so many uses!

 

Is this thing cool or what?

While getting ready to spread clover on our former garden area,

(I want to encourage pollinators and give the chooks some treats),

I asked my neighbor if she had a hand spreader.

This is what she whipped out and it took me by surprise.

I was expecting a handheld model,

but as soon as I saw this I asked her kiddingly,

"Could you will this to me?".

She kindly gave it to me to keep,

saying she didn't need it anymore.

Well, it turned out to be not what I needed for this particular job,

but I'm thinking it would make a great planter for the garden!

Me and retro go together like peas and carrots.

What's happening with your fall garden?